Brabus SV12 R Biturbo 800 Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Brabus builds the stealthiest, most powerful sedans in the world. This is the latest tarmac torturing, mega Newton-metre machine to come out of the German skunworks; the Brabus SV12 R Biturbo 800.

The name suggests how serious this car is, even just saying ‘SV12 R’ is enough to send any prospective competition packing. The number ‘800’ translates to mean 588kW. This 5.5-litre V12 engine produces a very-near 600kW making it the most powerful production sedan in the world.

Torque, you ask. The engine produces 1420Nm of torque but the transmission and running gear – and tyres – can’t really handle that much so Brabus has electronically limited the torque output to just 1100Nm… or about as much as two of the new supercharged 5.0-litre Ford FPV Coyote GTs.

Performance is only limited by traction, but Brabus say the car can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds with relative ease. That’s not the trump card though, its ability to reach 217mph, or 350km/h, is. It not only reaches this speed it is limited to it as well.

The car does all this through the use of a new crankshaft, cams, cylinder heads, exhaust and turbochargers. Brabus also fits a carbon fibre induction kit (check out the image), bigger pistons, four new intercoolers and a retuned ECU engine computer. Aerodynamic enhancements are also added to help the car cut through the air and to keep it from taking off.